Legislative amendments to Sask-atchewan’s Railway Act have gone to committee for further scrutiny.
The legislation governs provincial rail lines, which include the 13 short-line railways currently operating in the province.
One of the proposed changes would give the Highway Traffic Board the authority to order sellers and buyers to negotiate in good faith.
George Stamatinos, Saskatchewan Highways’ assistant deputy minister of policy and planning, said current legislation doesn’t contain provisions to move stalled negotiations forward.
The legislation that governs federally regulated rail lines requires a railway to issue a discontinuance notice and then enter a 120 day commercial transaction negotiation phase.
Read Also
Alberta farm lives up to corn capital reputation
Farm to Table Tour highlighting to consumers where their food comes from features Molnar Farms which grows a large variety of market fruits and vegetables including corn, with Taber being known as the Corn Capital of Canada.
This is where a willing buyer, willing seller process occurs.
However, if a deal isn’t reached, the federal act requires that the line be offered to the province or municipalities and that a net salvage value determination take place.
The provincial act follows the federal process until this point. It doesn’t require a short line to move to net salvage value determination.
“It was up to the rail line to offer at their discretion to sell to the province or the municipality, or they could just sit on it for an indeterminate amount of time,” Stamatinos said.
This happened in one case where a group of municipalities was interested in buying a line near Meadow Lake but the seller didn’t act. The board had to step in and order the company to negotiate. In the end, a deal wasn’t reached and the line was dismantled.
However, Stamatinos said the situation was awkward and the amendments aim to address that.
Another amendment addresses the matter of municipalities being forced to pay a price for a rail line without actually knowing what it is.
“In the government purchase phase, a municipal government is required to either decline or accept the offer to purchase the net salvage value within 60 days of receiving the offer, and they can only request a net salvage value after they have accepted the offer,” said highways minister Don McMorris. “As a result, they are forced to make a critical decision without knowing what the exact purchase price will be.”
Stamatinos said the proposed amendment would give municipal governments the chance to learn the net salvage value and have 30 days to decide if it is acceptable.
NDP MLA Trent Wotherspoon said it seems the current process “would appear to be less than fair.”
He said the opposition would consult and ask more questions as the bill makes its way through committee.
Saskatchewan’s short lines comprise 2,000 kilometres of track.
